Fivenet injecting ads into webpages

[ishtar_gate]

Registered just to say that this has been happening to me since yesterday. I've logged my (lack of) progress here.

I don't really know what ISP I have (via cable operator), but hitting up the gateway page brings me to a log2space page for Broadmax, and my connection name in PPPoE is labelled vvision. Is that related to Fivenet? Are they all locked in a conspiracy to take over the world?

 

[dark_horizon]

And I thought, I had been hit by a spyware. Cleared cookies, virus scan, did everything possible to remove that creep ad on twitter page. Thankfully got to know about this also through the same twitter page via Sushubh's tweet.The advt seems to be missing today. Maybe it was experimental.

 

[cyanide]

I'm still seeing the ads if I remove my filters. And I've been seeing them for atleast 2-3 days now.

 

[mgcarley]

^ voting with our wallets is not feasible 🙁 since we aren't exactly spoilt for choice !!
the only way out of this is to go through a VPN.

Ask your cablewala to switch you over to another ISP - most are connected to more than one.

updating the Iptables will only block the ads frm being displayed. It won't prevent those idiost from snooping through the data.
I m hoping Hayai won't stoop to such antics. I m ready to kick fivenet out if u provide me a connection this month end 😀

Hell no, we absolutely won't do this. I often circulate threads like this one through my directors to show to them what others are doing that we absolutely should not do. If we ever did something like this, then I would HOPE that customers would vote with their wallets and tell us why.

It is not contextual advertising. A simple piece of javascript is being injected into random pages. I assume contextual adversiting means that they are looking through the content and showing ads relevant to it. It is not so.

I did not sign any contract. Funny as it may be. And I've already paid for a full year, so there's not a lot I can do not. Fighting and making noise is my only option.


Surely you had to fill out some form when you subscribed to the service - it's a legal requirement. If you or someone in your household did not sign a contract with all your details/photo/ID proof xerox etc, then whoever is providing your connection is breaking the law by not keeping those records.

If nothing works out, I'll write to TRAI and see what they can do. I am still of the opinion that TRAI will take a dim view of these antics and ask them to remove it completely.

Frankly, I don't see the TRAI or DoT giving much of a s* about anything unless it becomes much more widespread.

But I might consider writing to them and complaining about the whole law-breaking thing as above.

Even India had a free ISP quite a while back where they made money off advertising. Don't know what happened to them.

Based on that sentence alone, it would seem that they've disappeared!

Apparently the UK govt considers it legal and allows firm to carry on such operations.

As I mentioned in a previous message, it is legal. Just not necessarily ethical unless that is in fact the business model of the ISP and it's explicitly stated that enjoying their services at reduced or no cost will involve dealing with ads.

 

[kickass]

Ask your cablewala to switch you over to another ISP - most are connected to more than one.
the other option is HNS(already tried it few months back) which unfortunately is crappy and disconnects often. Plus i get to use dc++ on fivenet @ 100Mbps 🙂

 

[mgcarley]

the other option is HNS(already tried it few months back) which unfortunately is crappy and disconnects often. Plus i get to use dc++ on fivenet @ 100Mbps 🙂

So don't switch to HNS if you don't like it - I have no reason to tell you to subscribe to them unless I end up buying them out and replacing that 24Online system of theirs, because unless something like that happens, I'm not benefiting.

In any case, surely the provider has more than 2 options (if not, he should get more than 2). I don't know what those would be, but no harm in asking.

Otherwise, if you're happy with Fivenet's new practice, stay with them only. The only point I'm trying to make is that unless they lose a significant amount customers because of this, they're not really going to care - or worse they might even think that this is OK to continue - so the choice is up to you.

 

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[kickass]

So don't switch to HNS if you don't like it - I have no reason to tell you to subscribe to them unless I end up buying them out and replacing that 24Online system of theirs, because unless something like that happens, I'm not benefiting.

In any case, surely the provider has more than 2 options (if not, he should get more than 2). I don't know what those would be, but no harm in asking.

Otherwise, if you're happy with Fivenet's new practice, stay with them only, but then the point I'm trying to make is that unless they lose a significant amount customers because of this, they're not really going to care - or worse they might even think that this is OK to continue - so the choice is up to you.
First fo all i m not ok with what they are doing. Fivenet was never my 1st choice to begin with. Hathway won't provide me with a connection. neither wud reliance(metro ethernet) or airtel. tata guys told me the copper is full so we can't give any new connections !!. btw i stay @ dadar .I have a mtnl line as a backup and the cablewalla has 2 choices HNS & Fivenet. lol so im kinda in a hopeless situation. 🙁
I wud be more than glad to kick fivenet provided u cud start in dadar(west) by month end.
The cable walla is already feigning ignorance about the ads. As of now tried with adblock which blocks the ad but shows a white rectangle in top right corner which overlaps the logout etc buttons on many websites .
If any1 can help me i wud like to know how to get rid of that white rectangle completely. ( i don't have access to a VPN, so it's not an option currently but i will take that route by next month if hayai doesn't begin its services)

 

[ishtar_gate]

Hey, I was directed here when this started happening to me a couple days ago. I made a post about it here, and my ISP (via cable operator) is probably Broadmax (that's what the log2space page at the gateway says), though my PPPoE connection reads vvision. I'm Mumbai-based, and have never heard of Fivenet.

I've also noticed two other other things, I sometimes 404 errors (mentioned in thread above) and my cookies seem to get deleted randomly (YouTube shows welcome message, logins missing, etc.) I've switched to a VPN, but will be following this closely.

 

[mgcarley]

First fo all i m not ok with what they are doing. Fivenet was never my 1st choice to begin with. Hathway won't provide me with a connection. neither wud reliance(metro ethernet) or airtel. tata guys told me the copper is full so we can't give any new connections !!. btw i stay @ dadar .I have a mtnl line as a backup and the cablewalla has 2 choices HNS & Fivenet. lol so im kinda in a hopeless situation. 🙁

I see your predicament.

I wud be more than glad to kick fivenet provided u cud start in dadar(west) by month end.

As many people know, I live in Matunga W, so most of Dadar/Mahim and whatnot are among of the first areas, because I know it pretty well and I've been talking about it to everyone from shop owners and the phalawalas at Citylight to friends, neighbours, and CHSes in the area - and because nowadays I am a reasonably well known face around here.

The cable walla is already feigning ignorance about the ads. As of now tried with adblock which blocks the ad but shows a white rectangle in top right corner which overlaps the logout etc buttons on many websites .

Based on very limited information, I would guess that the cablewala probably doesn't know anything about this problem and it's unlikely that he can do anything, either.

If any1 can help em i wud like to know how to get rid of that white rectangle completely. ( i don't have access to a VPN, so it's not an option currently but i will take that route by next month if hayai doesn't begin its services)

I sincerely hope that we will be able to help you this month and quietly confident that it would be November at the latest, depending on which part of Dadar (W) you're actually in (I'm sure you've told me where you live, but, so have hundreds of others, so you'll have to forgive me for not remembering).

 

[kickass]

^ bang opp dadar station

 

[mgcarley]

Hey, I was directed here when this started happening to me a couple days ago. I made a post about it here, and my ISP (via cable operator) is probably Broadmax (that's what the log2space page at the gateway says), though my PPPoE connection reads vvision. I'm Mumbai-based, and have never heard of Fivenet.

I've also noticed two other other things, I sometimes 404 errors (mentioned in thread above) and my cookies seem to get deleted randomly (YouTube shows welcome message, logins missing, etc.) I've switched to a VPN, but will be following this closely.

I'm failing to find much about Broadmax except their website, and zilch about vvision - would you mind sharing an IP address of yours so that I can figure out who they are, what they've got & how they're connected? My understanding is that they're somewhere in Santa Cruz, or at least, some of their customers are (based on posts at Techenclave etc).

Admittedly I'm surprised you've not heard about Fivenet, but that's the way it is here. I'm not affiliated with Fivenet, but, as I'm in the midst of starting my own ISP, it looks like my marketing team have their work cut out for them in your area 🙂

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^ bang opp dadar station

Ahh, you're that one only. Noted.

 

[kickass]

for those irritated with fivenet ads add the following line to the adblock in firefox.(takes care of the javascript showing a white rectangle)||202.177.240.202^ -- to block the ad##div[id="floatdiv"] -- to hide the rectangle element

 

[GeorgePB]

Wow, low blow from Fivenet.

In addition to the HOSTS/AdBlock suggestions posted above, might I recommend HTTPS Everywhere? It won't work everywhere, but on sites that support HTTPS, it'll automatically switch you to HTTPS. There's no way Fivenet can inject ads into an encrypted session.

 

[ashish]

indian broadband scenario is going from bad to worse.last time i had used an free isp called "Caltiger" on Dial-up connection 10 yrs back.can't believe in the era of high-speed BB, ISP'S are Duping customers by charging for the service and injecting ADS into it.

 

[ishtar_gate]

I'm failing to find much about Broadmax except their website, and zilch about vvision - would you mind sharing an IP address of yours so that I can figure out who they are, what they've got & how they're connected? My understanding is that they're somewhere in Santa Cruz, or at least, some of their customers are (based on posts at Techenclave etc).

Hmm, I think it's vvision, not Broadmax. The log2space page does keep saying vvision and 'Broadmax' is only a logo in the corner. My IP right now 27.106.10.30 and I'm generally assigned IPs in and around that range. Maybe a tracert will help? Check it out.[/QUOTE]

My net went down 3-4 hours ago and is up after a nap, and I don't see those ads any more when I'm off VPN. I'm guessing my cable operator was bright enough to switch to a different route or something.

last time i had used an free isp called "Caltiger" on Dial-up connection 10 yrs back.

Oh wow, epic props for reminding me of that. I was what, 10 years old when that was around. I remember they had a pretty wicked dialer with a rotating tiger globe or something. 😀